Forestry matters — Part 4
Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 30, 2026
In the previous discussions of Indigenous burning practices, we mentioned the purposes of the burning, but not the scope of it. The scope of the fires was impressive as documented in Dr. Boyd’s book “Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest” in the chapter “Strategies of Indian Burning in the Willamette Valley.”
In 1825 (prior to the massive influx of immigrants in the mid-1840s) the Hudson Bay Company initiated their annual southern trapping expedition to California. Alexander McLeod led the party and David Douglas, the noted botanist, accompanied them. The party departed Fort Vancouver in early September during the Indian’s burning season. In Yamhill Valley, McLeod noted “several Indian habitations” and a landscape “much overrun by fire.” Near the present site of Salem, Oregon, “the party was obliged to ford the river in order to find food for their horses because the land was burned and destitute of grass.”
Over the next few days, Douglas recorded:
“9/27 Country undulating; soil rich, light with beautiful solitary oaks and pines interspersed through it and must have a fine effect, but being all burned and not a single blade of grass except of the margins of the rivulets to be seen.”
“9/30 (heading south) … Most parts of the country burned; only on little patches in the valleys and on the flats near the low hills that verdure is to be seen. Some of the natives tell me it so done for the purpose of urging deer to frequent these parts to feed, which they leave unburned and of course they are easily killed.”
“10/2 (McLeod) Pasture is rarely found in the course of this day none has been seen, altho’ we traveled good twenty miles and had to put up along a small river that our horses might have the pickings along the margin of the woods, elsewhere the fire destroyed all the grass.”
The Willamette Valley is 140 miles long and up to 60 miles wide and from the accounts of McLeod and Douglas it appears that a sizeable portion had been burned by Native Americans. So the scope of the burning activity was extensive. The Hudson Bay Company estimated that the native population was about 8,000 at the time of the expedition, However, by 1825, the population had already been greatly reduced, with an estimated pre-contact population of perhaps 15,000. Douglas separated from the party in Umpqua County and headed back to Fort Vancouver in early November.
Where all had been burned heading south, he found “Country open, rich, level and beautiful … Fall rains had caused a greening of the prairies.” Where he saw deer on the way down he found newly formed marshes and lakes filled with migrating waterfowl (pages 100 and 101). It is obvious that the Native Americans had finely-tuned land management skills.
Moving farther afield, let’s ponder the Great Plains. That vast, flat plateau of grasslands stretching from the Rocky Mountains to the interior lowlands and from Canada to the Rio Grande. Many just assume that the endless grasslands early pioneers observed was the natural state. Multiple lines of evidence now show that the Great Plains were historically fire-dependent ecosystems and Indigenous Nations played a major role in sustain those fire regimes. Fire intervals of 1 to 35 years characterized the plains. Indigenous-set fires were especially common in late spring and summer.
Native American communities burned grasslands to:
• Improve forage for bison and other game
• Direct animal movement
• Clear brush and woody encroachment
• Maintain travel corridors
• Protect settlements by reducing fuel
• Facilitate agricultural preparation and maintenance.
• Prevent the spread of trees and shrubs, keep prairies open, and stimulate vigorous regrowth
of native grasses and wildflowers which depend on periodic burning
• The U.S. Forest Service notes that historical fire regimes were a blend of lightning and human ignitions, and that Indigenous burning was a major contributor to the frequent, landscape-shaping fires that maintained the prairie mosaic.
Had the Indigenous People not actively managed these prairie lands, much of this area would have followed nature’s path to become forest.
Next Topic: The end of Native American land management.
Don Healy lives in Lynnwood. He graduated with a B.S. Degree in Forest Management from Oregon State University in 1968, spent 10 years in the field and has followed forestry matters avidly during retirement.
